Hydro Differential pressure exchange over unity system.

[wildew]

Apologies TK - you're right.
I thought I had that sorted out.
It was intended to be mostly illustrative, just to clarify the terms used to describe the positions of the fluids, but I should have checked the counts again.
Yes - the blue is water, the proportions as they relate to the terms are what's important.
Dale

[wildew]

@Webby - as the lift happens the water level in the pod chamber is going up, that is a resistance for the input, so as it grows the head must also grow to cover it

Be real careful here - 2 things going on - pressure vs. flow - many people have a hard time distinguishing between them, and I'm not saying you're one of them, but be careful.

IF... all things are are equal, water will flow and stuff will move, at a given pressure [head - differential].
-- this is the "apple" --
If there is a need to increase pressure [only] during lift then something else is causing it, not the load - unless I'm way off base.
Adding "makeup" fluid at the same pressure is to be expected.

Too many years as a plumber having people tell me their shower was terrible because the "pressure" was low....
Give 'em a low pressure, high flow, [clean] shower head - and suddenly the "pressure" was great 

Same with electricity, 'nother time.

Dale

[TinselKoala]

no, add the rest of the max lift weight,, or the other 16lbs so that you are back to max lift.

You are looking at the input needed to go from the 8lbs floating "rest position\condition" to the full 24lbs lifted 3\4 inch.  That is the difference between the "just lift the whole mass from zero" to, lift the mass from the "setup" which is the 8 lbs on risers and just floating.

So the 8lbs just floating is the rest position.

That's right. This appears to be a test of my hypothesis that the setup preload is acting as a spring, I think.

[mondrasek]

@mondrasek: Looks good.... I might have used a different material for the stop ring, but my scrap pile is undoubtedly differently assorted than yours is.
What's the little electronic circuit to the left? I'm guessing it is the power supply for your LED illumination?

Plywood is definitely not the best material around all this water.  But I did dunk it through several baths of a waterproofing sealant before installing.  This was a leason learned after watching the same material of the base stand start to delaminate when it first got wet.  The waterproof has done a good enough job on that for now.

The circuit is a DC/DC buck/boost converter.  I'm using it as a regulator to take the 12V of an old Toshiba laptop power brick down to the 3~4 volts on the LED lights.

M.

[CuriousChris]

I looked at the ZED system about a month ago and dismissed it after viewing a couple of fish tank videos - really is that all he had.

Anyway I haven't read 167 pages of this stuff to come up to speed just a few notes and looked at a video by mondrasek.

Now I have to ask. Has anyone reviewed the theories behind hydraulics? it explains everything I have seen so far.

hydrostatics is the field in question. Mondraseks video shows a simple hydraulic press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_press

If I am on the wrong path, could someone kindly bring me up to speed?